Russia a threat to US industrial control systems through cyber attacks

The Defense Intelligence Agency warned this month that Russian government hackers could penetrate U.S. industrial control networks using commercial security software.

The agency stated in a recent notice circulated within the Pentagon that security software being developed by Kaspersky Lab, a Russian-origin company, will create vulnerabilities for U.S. industrial control systems and so-called supervisory control and data acquisition software, or SCADA, systems, if purchased and deployed by American utilities.

A DIA spokesman declined to comment on the report.

Kaspersky Lab, in a statement, denied its security products could be used against U.S. infrastructure.

In a related development, two U.S. military commanders urged Defense Secretary Ash Carter earlier this month to do more to defend critical infrastructure from cyber attacks against industrial control systems.

“We respectfully request your assistance in providing focus and visibility on an emerging threat that we believe will have serious consequences on our ability to execute assigned missions if not addressed – cyber security of [Defense Department] critical infrastructure Industrial Control Systems,” Northern Command’s Adm. William Gortney and Pacific Command’s Adm. Harry Harris stated in a Feb. 11 letter to Carter.

On the potential Russian government exploitation of security software, defense officials familiar with the DIA report said the agency fears U.S. electrical and water utilities, as well as other critical industrial sectors, will purchase and use the Kaspersky security software.

The agency said the software could permit Russian government hackers, considered among the most advanced nation-state cyber spies, to gain access to industrial control software, specifically remote-controlled SCADA programs that run the electrical grid, oil and gas networks, water pipelines and dams, and wastewater systems.
...

Can you trust the Russians not to exploit the software? Probably not despite the assurances of the company. Putin would not be Putin if he did not at least try to exploit the software.

"It continues. Have seen gunships firing and heard much activity in the last few hours."...
The Iraqi claim is plausible. It is just the kind of thing that could be expected from ISIS forces. ISIS is in a desperate fight and appears willing to pull down all those around them as they lose.

Some injuries were reported and more than a dozen people were arrested after opposing sides clashed at dueling pro- and anti-Trump rallies, Berkeley, Calif., police said.
The liberals engage in projection by calling Trump supporters fascists, when it is in fact, their supporters who are sparking the violence in Califonia. There is a strain of intolerance for other points of view that is enforced by people dressed in black and their faces covered. They physically attack Trump supporters or other conservatives. These people may wear black but the are the Brownshirts of liberal fascism.

Fuel Fix:
OPEC producers took another 153,000 barrels a day off the market in March as part of its bid to drain the world’s oil glut.

In the cartel’s monthly report released Wednesday, independent sources reported the group of oil-producing countries has cut output by 1.1 million barrels a day since December.

Last month, Libya’s output dropped by nearly 9 percent, and production edged lower in the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Nigeria, Iran, Angola and other countries. Saudi Arabia raised production by 41,000 barrels a day.

That effort has pushed oil prices above $50 a barrel in recent months, breathing life into U.S. oil patches like the Permian Basin. U.S. crude rose 16 cents on Wednesday to $53.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as traders reacted to media reports that Saudi Arabia, the cartel’s de facto leader, wants to see OPEC continue production cuts into the second half of this year.

But even as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries works to slow…